But the FAA also feels like something is fishy–and their investigation has answered one question for us.

According to TechTimes, the FAA is investigating why the airline only had three minutes of fuel reserve.

It looks like the air traffic control and the flight were in contact as soon as the aircraft reached the airport. Even if the airport wasn’t closed, this wouldn’t be enough fuel for any minor delays (too much traffic on the runway, etc).

Edit: Fargo Airport was closed and the flight was en-route from Las Vegas to Fargo on July 27th, 2015 when this occurred.

This makes the whole thing fishier, but at least dispels what a lot of people assumed at first–that the plane circled for a while. Because who the heck would take off for an airport with no fuel reserves?